Category: Women in The Workforce

Women are paid less than men and women of color are paid even less. They face sexual harassment in the workplace. They feel they have to work harder than men.

Background

53% of people with degrees in Canada are women. But there are still way more male corporate leaders than women. Women are typically in entry level positions with less opportunity for advancement. Women only make up 25% of vice presidents and 15% of Canadian CEOs. A woman is 30% less likely to get promoted than men. Men get promoted three times more often than women.(Arnaud, 2018)

Sexual violence against black women can often be ignored because of untrue biases about their sexuality. This has influenced so many black women not to report sexual assault. In every 15 women who is raped only 1 reports her assault.

Latina women who work full time, only make 54% of what a white man would make. This means latina women lose $26,095 per year. If this wasn’t true, a Latina woman would have enough money for: More than 3 years of child care, 3 more years of tuition and fees for school, 193 more weeks of food for her family, and almost 18 additional months of mortgage and utility payments.

On average, the wage for Black women in the United States is $36,227 per year, and the average wage of $57,925 per year for white men. This means black women lose $21,698 per year. If this wasn’t true, on average, a Black woman would have enough money for: 2.5 years of child care, almost 2.5 years of tuition and fees for school, 159 more weeks of food for her family , More than 14 months of mortgage and utility payments or 22 more months of rent.

What the research says

There are less women in corporate leader positions they are mostly in staff positions with less opportunity for advancement. Women make up about 45% of all beginner staff positions, but only 25% of vice presidents and 15% of CEOs in Canada. A women are 30% less likely to get promoted than a man. When moving from director to vice-president levels, men advance three times more often than women.(Arnaud, 2018) Women of color are the most underrepresented group in corporate positions. They deal with the most challenges, and they are the least supported. Sexual violence against Black women is often ignored becuase of untrue biases about their sexuality. For every 15 women who is raped only 1 reports her assault.(Now) Latina women who work full time, only make 54% of what a white man would make. This means latina women lose $26,095 per year. If this wasn’t true, a Latina woman would have enough money for: More than 3 years of child care, 3 more years of tuition and fees for school, 193 more weeks of food for her family, and almost 18 additional months of mortgage and utility payments. The average wages for Black women in the United States is $36,227 per year, compared to $57,925 annually for white men. This is $21,698 annually. The average, the wage for Black women in the United States is $36,227 per year, and the average wage of $57,925 per year for white men. This means black women lose $21,698 per year. If this wasn’t true, on average, a Black woman would have enough money for: 2.5 years of child care, almost 2.5 years of tuition and fees for school, 159 more weeks of food for her family , More than 14 months of mortgage and utility payments or 22 more months of rent.

Conclusions

To conclude, this research shows how women and, more specifically women of color, are treated in the workplace. There is prejudice about women that they aren’t as capable as men are, so because of this they feel a lot of pressure to be as successful as a man. Women in the same job as a man feels that they have to work twice as hard to get to the same place professionally. Only 15% of CEOs in Canada are women and in the United States, only 12.4% of management positions are held by women of color. Women are 30% less likely than a man to get promoted just because of their race and gender. Because of this underrepresentation in the workplace, women don’t feel comfortable reporting sexual assault or harrassment, which is why only 1 out of every 15 women reports sexual harrassment incidents.

Latina women are paid only 54% of what a white man would be paid for the same job. For black women its is 62% of what a man what a man would make. These stats are disgusting, people should not be paid any less for doing the same job. With the money these women have lost they could afford more things like childcare, food, tuition for school, rent, and so much more.

Everyone deserves to be treated the same, make the same amount of money, and have access to the same opportunities as everyone else, just because they are women of color doesn’t mean that they are any less capable of getting things done.

INTRODUCTION

The HR department has a lot of roles and responsibilities to carry out in a company. HR manager and department in an organization are responsible to recruit top talent and maintain present employees contented. Hr department can make their employees happy through benefit plans, training and the making of an enjoyable work environment. Human resource department is required to look for and hire employees and train them. They have got to aid with conflict resolution, and organize the overall functioning of a company. HR department work with workers, sort out their issues and present their needs with managers. A perfect HR strategy is essential for doing all these things efficiently.

Work study is the most important tool that can help to increase productivity in any industry hence , this study helps to identify the bottle necks and suggest appropriate systems to improve productivity . Then for this purpose , method study has been carried out by applying questioning techinces concepts ,where recording and critical analaysis of all related information has been performed in particular production line.

Human resource strategy is aimed at fulfilling the company’s on the whole goals, mission, as well as accomplishing future goals of the company. Here are some effective HR strategies to increase employee productivity in an organization:

• Plans That Builds Commitment
• Keep Employees Happy and Contented
• Effective rewards and recognitions for employee

In the company like Accenture , women are vital part of the workforce. They make the major idea community in terms of tech and Managerial roles . Accenture also wants women employee percent to be in the good ratio.

While adhering to the women employee benefits , its concerned that the productivity of the women workforce declines once she gets into the Maternity stage .

Maternity stage is a very important stage in one women’s life irrespect of her career .No Company wants to loose the productivity of her and also wants to make sure her maternity is passed on a smooth phase.

PROBLEM STATEMENT

To improvise the productivity of working parents in Accenture, while reducing the attrition in workspace. Accenture faced the productivity issues in the early 2010, since then it had plans to make the employees work better with benefits to the working parents since they form the major workforce.

During the study following where the factors they seemed workers not active:

• Maternity Leave
• Working Timing (Shift Timing)
• Focus on Mental Health

The study was conducted at various levels from various office locations in PAN India. The process demands the Qualitative Study to jot down the focus areas of improvements.

THEORITICAL CAUSES

Work Timings

Employees who are in parental stage face timings as a hurdle in order to make her child grow well enough .From the above study its clear that about 45% of women employee face the timings are the one which kind of make them clueless to balance with the family and work which in turn reflects the day’s work plan .

Mental Health

In respect to the health, mental health of the women post her pregnancy is the major one where she struggles more. Women are the who carries family and her health on a single table . As per table its picture perfect that 32% of women faced mental health problems which has abruptly weaken the productivity.

Maternity

Once a women employee has been conceived her body doesn’t allows her to cope up on the job versus her own . Traveling to work in the morning and getting back to home around the traffic causes her health decline.

During maternity there is a considerable reduction in productivity even 23% . The above three may seems to be few concerns but this plays a vital role , because women are facing high time in the above conditions so they are hesitant to their works assigned nd not able to focus on the day to day activities whch in turn highly affects the productivity has raised the eyes of HR people of Accenture.

IMPLEMENTATIONS/INTIATIVES

Vaahini Network to Empower Women

Vaahini is an Accenture-enabled networking platform for professional women that offers them an opportunity to learn, where women are encouraged to learn new ideas and technologies to be in a up to date nature.

They are often motivated into programmes that make them feel empowered with speeches and training modules enabled to keep them updated irrespect of their work and family life balance.

Here comes one of the testimonial

Marine Grace: Managing Director /Accenture Digital. She joined the company as a developer to dynamic, multifaceted digital leader to her ability to stay on her toes, accept new challenges and remain highly versatile and comfortable with new technologies. She has emerged as a great leader through the Vaahini Program so she has horned her skills in terms of new trends in technology.

Returning Mother’s Program

The Accenture Delivery Centers for Technology in India introduced this new programme in January 2016 to focus on staffing and re-skilling women into technology roles upon their return from maternity leave. It ensures connect with returning mothers and their supervisors to create awareness about the organization’s commitment to gender diversity.

Here, before the maternity leave gets over, the human resources (HR) team gets in touch with her. She then decides whether she wants to come back or wishes to extend. So, a few weeks before she joins, the technology training intervention that she would need is decided by staffing and skilling division.

Testimonal 2 :Ramya Pandarinath, application development team lead, Products, is a first-time mother, who is enjoying the sweet bliss of motherhood alongside leading a team of 23 professionals. Her team helps a large automotive client in managing its spare parts business. A strong assurance from her supervisor and the faith shown in her capabilities, helped her make up her mind to slowly but surely return to work. Ramya Shared “the magic of motherhood is beautiful and I am lucky to be working with Accenture, an organization which has helped me stay focused on work while achieving a healthy work life balance. With the support from Accenture and my family, I can say that I’m loving it!” The one piece of advice Ramya wants give to share with new mothers, “Trust your maternal instinct and give yourself and your baby time to ease into the new situation.”

Men as Advocates of Diversity

Men are also an integral part of the process. Their ‘men as advocates of gender diversity’ programme engages men in creating equal workplaces and helps build a positive male mindset to gender equality

Selected Male employees are handpicked from the workforce from the Middle management. Despite several discourses centered around gender diversity

in technology organizations, the number of women in senior leadership roles has always been dramatically lower than that of men. Employers are trying their utmost to employ more women in the sector but there seems to be a lack of women at the top positions the tech sector. Having said that, there are a number of women senior roles within the tech business who are influencing, motivating and mentoring others through their diligence, determination and sheer talent.

Under the Men as Advocates of Gender Diversity program at Accenture, we use several forums to engage our men advocates such as live in-person learning groups, virtual learning sessions, leadership offsite planning meetings, leadership roundtables with Accenture leaders publicly talking about their personal commitment to diversity advocacy with our people.

Empaneled Day Care

After the maternity leave gets over women are encouraged to bring up their child to the dedicated day care allied with office building , where the child is taken care at most so the mother is free from her tasks even her feeding her child often.

She gets more confident to her work nature and feels safer so that she can give her very good productivity to the work assigned for. At Accenture Empaneled Day Care is a adviced one for the working employees so they are not hesitant in contuining their job .

Work From Home

Working womens can take care of upto 3 months of continuous work from home option in permission considering the employees condition post maternity , also persons who have family concerns can avail this opportunity .

22 weeks of Maternity leave

Accenture increased maternity-leave benefits for its full-time and part-time women employees in India to 22 weeks of paid leave, up significantly from the current statutory requirement of 12 weeks.

The new policy, which was effective May 1, also allows employees in India who don’t have enough accrued vacation time, but want additional time off beyond the maternity leave, to take unpaid leave for another 12 weeks. Employees also may take an additional four weeks of paid leave if there is an illness directly related to the mother’s pregnancy.

In addition to the maternity-leave benefits, Accenture offers its employees in India up to eight weeks of fully paid adoption leave for primary caregivers of an adopted child.

Accenture’s comprehensive support for parents in India also includes access to a variety of resources, such as discounted childcare services, interactive parenting workshops, employee assistance programs, and pre- and post-maternity counseling sessions. In addition, employees can work with their supervisors and career counselors to explore flexible work arrangements, such as working from home, where possible.

CONCLUSION

After series of implementation now Accenture has become the Top 50 Employers for women. Considering the employees challenges to the work nature is key success of any company . In which Accenture has emoted well enough to the desires of the women employees.

To its statistics 40 % of the employees have emerged as Women work force. 25 % of managerial roles by Women workforce where some of their mile stones achieved with cultivating the productivity as well as the workmenship.

REFERENCES

1. https://www.accenture.com/in-en/vaahini-in-conversation-achiever
2. https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/men-become-bastions-of-diversity-and-gender-inclusion-in-companies/articleshow/62329976.cms
3. https://hrcsuite.com/increase-employee-productivity/

“A women should be taught to believe in protecting herself on her own and not to depend on a man for her protection. She has the power to protect the world and not just herself.” “

HISTORY OF WOMEN’S SUPPRESSION

During the early days, agriculture was the chief human occupation and it was based on heavy physical labour. Men never involved in the occupation of agriculture. It was women who did the hard labour jobs like grinding grain, carrying water, gathering wood etc which were a part of agriculture. An exemption for women was allowed from these jobs only if she was pregnant or if she delivered a baby. After the industrial revolution emerged, the working place changed from home to factories. In the beginning, the family as a whole together were working in the factories. During this, the men earned the name as ‘good provider’ which forced the women to take charge of the household works. This is how women were pushed into the house not being able to work outside their houses. Now, men being the ‘good provider’ also became the ‘bread winner’ of the family and so that automatically made him as the head of the family. Being the head of the family, he took all the decisions regarding the members of the family without any suggestions from the female members of his family. Women were neither left to work nor left to speak for their living. And this is was the history of women’s oppression.

WOMEN INTO WORKFORCE

Social and economic developments in the world were the reasons for the changes in the nature of work of the women. When the industrial revolution went to its peak, there was lack of people to work. So people thought that they will give the easy jobs to women that provides only a lesser amount of salary. During that time, there was a high demand for teachers because of the increased demand for education and there was a high demand for salespeople because of the increased number of factory outlets. People thought that these jobs would perfectly suit women because they were not hard to do and they provided only lesser amount of salary. Women were also engaged in other works which were related to the traditional household work that they did inside their house. But they were paid less for this also since the society considered only the men to be the bread winners of the family. In many areas, women were paid lesser than men though they did the same kind of work and same amount of work.

THE THREE WORLD’S WOMEN

The world is classified as,

• FIRST-WORLD includes the super developed countries.
• SECOND-WORLD includes the developed countries.
• THIRD-WORLD includes the developing countries and the under developed countries.

The women living in all these three worlds face different kinds of oppression and struggling situations. First-world women were the first to enter the workforce followed by the second-world women and later by the third-world women. Compared to the first-world women and the second-world women, the third-world women face a lot of hardships in the workforce. India still belongs to the third-world country. The patriarchal family system that still prevails in India gives more rights and authority to the male making them to enjoy more power and take rights over the female members of the family. In India, women are considered to be inferior and secondary individuals to men. Many women in India lack basic education even still now and because of this they are not aware of their own rights. Taking this as an advantage, the men oppress, suppress, harass and subjugate the women in India. After facing all the hardships at home, many women in India tried so much and came out of their homes to work outside. The hardships they face in the public sphere is comparatively more than they face in the private sphere. Not only India, but women of many third-world countries face the same problem.

PROBLEMS FACED BY THIRD-WORLD WOMEN IN WORKFORCE

JOANNA ZAMBAS, a journalist listed out the following topics which were the actual problems faced by the third world working women. They are :

PREGNANCY DISCRIMINATION

It becomes very difficult for women who are pregnant to continue their office work. On one side, they have to look after the family and her baby and on the another side, she has to work properly in the office. Maternal leave is given to the women who are working in the formal sectors. But the women in the informal sector are not given maternal leave and if the women take personal leave for some course of time, it may lead to losing of her job. Many women working in the informal sectors are afraid of starting a family because it may lead to loss of their jobs. Here, women have the option to choose any one thing. That is, she can earn money or she can start a family. If she aims to earn more money, she can’t have a family and if she aims to start a family, she can’t earn money. Higher positions in the office are also not given to women because of pregnancy discrimination.

SEXUAL HARASSMENT

Sexual harassment happening in the public sphere became very common in the modern world. Though women are not physically stronger than men, it is proved that they are mentally more powerful than men. So few men who can’t beat them in their office work try to put them down by physical force. Sexual harassment is almost gone in the first-world countries because the first-world women became brave enough to tell out the sexual harassment problems that were happening to them. But it is totally different for the third-world country women. Women in the third-world think and assume that it is shameful to tell others about the sexual harassments they are facing. Also, they thought that this reason will again make them sit in their houses and make them do the old practice of traditional household works.

GENDER PAY GAP

The people in the society have created a prejudice that a woman has to earn less than a man. The reason for this is the people believe that men are the good providers and the bread winners of the family. In almost all the informal sectors, women are paid lesser salary than men. They are paid lesser though the women and men do the same amount of work. People believe in the prejudice that a family always depends on a man but it never depends on a woman. Men also strongly believe that being the head of the family, it should be him to earn more than his wife. In many cases, husbands felt low for earning lesser salary than his wife and due to this, he tried to stop her from working.

APPEARNACE

Another prejudice that the society puts on women is that a woman should always look polished in her public sphere. Though if she looks simple and if she is sincere in her works, the society thinks that she gives lesser attention to her office work. A woman is judged by her looks and her way of dressing and the way she presents herself in the office. In most of the informal sectors, placements and jobs are given only to those women who look attractive and who look polished. Due to this, women who looks less attractive feel inferior and do not come out to work. Air hostess are hired only on the basis of how they look and how they present themselves.

WORK-LIFE IMBALANCE

A woman has to face the pressure of maintaining a good family life and a good career for herself. When she gives more concentration for her office work, she has to sacrifice the time that she is willing to spend with her partner and her kids. If she wishes to spend time only with her family, she will have to face the consequences in her office. Her negligence in office work will lead to lower salary and less promotion opportunities. Most of the men feel shameful to do the household works being a support system to their wives when she is busy with her office work. So the pressure in both public and private sphere for a woman has been remaining the same for a long time.

ASCERTAINMENT ON WOMEN’S DECLINE IN WORKFORCE

A report gave by SOUTIK BISWAS, a journalist of the BBC news channel tells that,

• Nearly 20 million Indian women quit work between 2004-05 to 2011-12.
• The labour force participation rate for women of working age declined from 42% in 1993-94 to 31% in 2011-12.
• In rural areas, the female labour force participation rate dropped from 49% to 37.8% between 2004-05 and 2009-10.
• India has a poor record of female participation in the workforce. The International Labour Organisation ranked India 121 out of 131 countries in 2013, one of the lowest in the world.

REVIEW OF LITERATURE

BECOMING – MICHELLE OBAMA

This book talks about the diversity, inclusion and advocacy for women’s rights. Michelle Obama, the former First Lady of US tells about her learnings and her successes in both her private and public life in this book. The book teaches the reader about defying stereotypes and building a life on her own.

THE CONFIDENCE CODE – KATTY KAY and CLAIRE SHIPMAN

The authors tell how confidence plays an important role in the workforce of women. Gender equality still exists even though many women are getting educated and being aware of their rights. The authors give real-life tips ans tools to women here to shine with the necessary confidence in their workshop.

LEAN IN – SHERYL SANDBERG

This book acts as a guide to women to negotiate equal pay and getting promotion in their workforce. It has opened the eyes of many leaders in the country to take necessary actions.

WONDER GIRLS – VARSHA ADUSUMILLI

This book comprises 15 stories of women and it is a promising read of empowerment for both men and women who are looking to step out of their comfort zones and make shift in their careers.

CASE STUDY

Lots of cases are being observed which tells that women are being discriminated and disrespected in the society. Jennifer Kelly, a working woman has given the following statement :

“I offer suggestions and comments during meetings, and often my suggestions do not even get acknowledged. Then, moments later, a male in the room offers up my suggestion and claims it as his own, and everyone acts real supportive and cheers it. I have been told by friends and family members that have not seen me for a while that I speak with such authority even just in friendly conversation outside of work, and that I sort to talk more like a guy”.

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

The integration of women into the workforce was originated by the WOMEN IN DEVELOPMENT (WID) approach and addressing the problems of the third-world women and finding suitable solutions for them were originated by the GENDER AND DEVELOPMENT (GAD) approach.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. Women in the workforce – www.britannica.com
2. www.careeraddict.com
3. Why are millions of women dropping out of work? – www.bbc.com
4. www.nytimes.com

Women, for many years, have been deprived of many fundamental rights and opportunities. Women’s unwillingness to speak made men confident of their authority and power over society. And If a woman even tries to speak up, men crushes them into silence and intimidates them and eventually doubts herself and loses self-confidence (Solnit 12).

Race is also a big factor why women are at a disadvantage compared to men. In the US, the country is basically run by straight-white-male authority. If you’re not white, if you’re not straight and if you’re not a man, you are basically at a disadvantage. Gender has a big impact when it comes to choosing a career. Women can work in a male-dominated workplace but still, women’s career advancement and promotion are slow compared to men. Women are also prone to sexual harassment. A lot of feminists are pushing women’s rights and help to straighten justice and equality between men and women, but the system is not perfect. In the society, all gender has important roles, but these roles do not mean that a gender should be limited to such standards.

Believe it or not, women still get paid less than men. According to PayScale.com, a data company and a website that helps employers to manage employee compensation, in the uncontrolled gender pay gap, a woman earns 79 cents for every $1 a man earns. That is a 21% difference in men’s salary. If a male employee makes $40,000.00 annual salary, a woman would make $31,600.00. That is $8,400.00 less and that is a huge difference. Race plays a role too when it comes to the wage gap. The largest uncontrolled pay gap is for American Indian, Alaska Native, Black, and Hispanic women. Women with these races get paid $0.74 for every dollar a White man earns. If you do the math, that is 26% less than White men. Women work as hard as men and have more workload when they reach their homes. Women are not compensated at home and surely not compensated well at work either.

Women are working as hard as men and not getting the same pay. A woman can have the same qualifications as a man but still a second choice after the male candidate. A woman can have the highest score among all the male candidates but would still not get a position or job that she applied for. A man and a woman can have the same job but in the race of climbing the corporate ladder, the man is always ahead. Women may have to struggle more to get to that position compared to men. Dianna Chan, writer at the website Stars and Stripes, said that according to the women who responded to their poll, 68.5% of women who serve and served in the military had experienced discrimination based on gender. These numbers are just for one career paths women are trying to get rid of the stereotype.

Women are prone to sexual harassment in the military, office or at any other workplace. Is it because women are expected to be fragile and just an object of sexual desire or is it because women are subjected to society’s stereotypes that has been carved in mankind’s mind? Men in higher position with big ego, terrible work ethics and men who are abusive of their authority and power are usually the ones who offer indecent proposal or unwelcome sexual advances to women in exchange for a better position at the workplace, lighter workload, and favors. Some men just do it because they want to discriminate. Belittling women because of society’s stereotypes labeled on them. Women in the military are no exception in this issue. According to the report given to SWAN also known as Service Women’s Action Network, a community that stands as the voice of military women, 20,500 service members were sexually assaulted in the FY18 with 6.2% of women and 0.7% of men experiencing sexual assault.